Abstract
Whereas the highly literate and sophisticated lowland Burman have practiced The-ravada Buddhism since the eleventh century, the illiterate and impoverished minoriti-es like the Karen, Kachin, and Chin had practiced their cosmic religion. Whereas American Baptist missionaries, who evangelized the Burman in the nineteenth century, faced rejection and failure, they, when proselyting minorities, saw considerable success with enduring implications.
Drawing on vast and rich archival sources and her own experience in Burma, Alexandra Kaloyanides has meticulously explored and masterfully presented the historically complex intersections of American Baptist missionaries, the Burman, and ethnic minorities, especially the Karen. Kaloyanides’s scholarship invites readers to walk with her to look at how American Baptist missionaries changed the religious landscapes of Burma.
The first chapter intriguingly articulates the indispensable role of sacred books in the religious interplay between the Buddhist Burman, American Baptist missionaries, and the animist minorities. The second chapter analyzes and highlights the important roles mission schools and female missionaries played in the course of mission work. The third chapter illuminates the historical importance of pagodas in the religious life of the Burman and the preoccupation of American Baptist missionaries with such pagodas during their mission efforts among the Burman. The final chapter clearly and accurately demonstrates how the ethnic minority Christians have amplified their newly adopted religion to preserve their distinct ethnic identity from their lowland Buddhist neighbors.
While many scholars often simplify the complicated history of Burma, Kaloyanides aptly provides her readers with a more nuanced and balanced presentation of the intricate and hidden history of nineteenth-century Burma, rightly contending, “Burma was not a simple country of unified Buddhists defending themselves against a monolithic Western enemy, but rather a place of entangled empires and reimagined religious worlds” (4).
When evangelizing in Southeast Asia, missionaries usually made more inroads among the illiterate upland races. When recounting important factors influencing many Karen to embrace missionaries with open arms and accept Christianity, Kaloyanides precisely states that regardless of their origin, Karen folklores played a crucial role when many Karen enthusiastically adopted Christianity (64). It is helpful to remember that the other illiterate races in modern Burma like the Chin, Kachin, and Lahu had the same legend of the lost book, and most of them also became Christians.
Historically Christian mission schools had been highly respected and hugely popular in Burma before Ne Win, the first military dictator, nationalized them in the 1960s. This deprived many generations of Burmese students of a high standard of education and thus devastated the future destiny of many youth. Kaloyanides aptly highlights the historical fact that American missionaries were key players in revolutionizing education in Burma when they founded countless renowned mission schools, which trained and educated the best minds of the Karen, Burman, and other ethnicities.
When carefully examining the close interplay between religion and politics in nineteenth-century Burma, Kaloyanides pertinently argues that the Burman built countless pagodas across the empire partly in direct response to the increasing pressure and uphill challenge from British colonialism and American Baptist missionary activities (154–55). It is true that when faced with the historically unprecedented alien intrusion and influence, the kings, monks, and laypeople, who genuinely feared for their religion and ethnicity, grew restless in reviving Buddhism by building new pagodas, repairing old pagodas, producing religious texts, and ultimately mixing religion and ethnic identity politics more than ever before. The rise of Buddhist nationalism before and after national independence in 1948 must be observed and understood against this particular historical context.
Displaying her notable and artistic writing skills, Kaloyanides splendidly describes her visits to many historic places inseparably associated with American Baptist missionaries. Her expressive accounts of Rangoon, Bagan, Mandalay, Ava, Aungpinle, Moulmein, and Kyaikkhami make the book spectacularly intriguing and dramatic. Most Christians now live in Chin, Kachin, Kayah, Shan States and Irrawaddy and Sagaing regions, but the earlier history of the church took place in these cities and towns.
Kaloyanides reminds her readers of how minority Christians practice their religion as a form of displaying their differences against the domination and hegemony of their far more powerful lowland neighbors, who solidly control the levers of political power in contemporary Burma (206). Ethnic minorities like the Chin, Kachin, Karen, and Lahu, who today represent the vast majority of Christians in Burma, express their religious practices partly to protect their distinct ethnic identity. Another way of saying this is that the expression of their religion as a powerful source of resistance against the aggressive policy of Burmanization has helped ethnic minorities to retain their distinct ethnic identity.
It must be remembered that the once-illiterate hill people now have their own written script, their own vernacular Bible, their own Christian hymns, their own religious organizations, their own seminaries and colleges, and their own learned religious leaders and scholars. All of this contributes to making ethnic minority Christians different from their religious neighbors.
Though her work is primarily about the intersection between American missionaries and Burman Buddhists in the nineteenth century, this book could have been much richer if Kaloyanides had visited the cities of Hakha, Myikyina, Loikaw, Pathein, Kengtung, Kalay, Lashio, centers of the nation’s Christian populations, as well as the renowned Insein Baptist seminaries in Yangon where most Baptist leaders were and have always been educated. In all, this work is a classic and timeless treasure for scholars and students interested in Southeast Asian studies, mission history, world Christianity, and colonial history.
Baptizing Burma is one of the best books I have ever read on Burmese studies. Generations of Burma scholars and students will find it useful.